Settling In

The last few days have been much kinder on Scout and I. She is doing well now and is settling in more each day. She is eating well and I think I may have managed to coax her into eating all the good things I have for her. She is getting a mix of oaten, lucerne and barley chaff with freshly brewed rosehip and garlic tea poured over it. She gets this twice a day and she just loves it. Today I started adding a little seaweed meal and brewers yeast to it. After some good advice from Leslie, I have managed to trick her into eating the slippery elm powder by mixing it in with some rice pollard and copra. It is crucial that she gets the slippery elm into her belly as it will create a soothing lining for her gut. Once she has eaten it she has to wait 20 minutes before I can give her the rest of her feed. She was most annoyed about this new development. She kept walking over to the spot at the fence where her chaff was, turning to look at me and then at the chaff again. She then walked over to her empty feed bucket gave it a nudge, looked at me then back at the fence where the feed was. She is so expressive with her communication. It is such a delight to witness.

Yesterday, Gavin my horse trainer friend, came to the property to work one of the other horses. He dropped in to see how Scout and I were doing. She was sticking to me like glue that day. I walked over to the fence to talk to him and she followed right beside. I stood with my arm across her back whilst talking to him and she stood happily. I took a few strides back and she did the same. Gavin mentioned that I would have to start setting some boundaries for her soon as she would start to get too pushy. There have been no signs of that sort of behaviour from her at all. In fact, quite the opposite. She has become more respectful than the first couple of days she was here. Now when she stands with me or if she walks past me and goes to stand behind or beside me she will always swing her hindquarters away. When she wants a rub she does not stand all over me, instead she positions herself beside me and cranes her neck over my way a little, looking at me with her large liquid eyes.

The only area I have had to put a boundary on so far is feed time. I like all my horses to stand politely and wait before eating until I tell them to. She loves her food so I thought it important to have her acting safely when it comes feeding time. When she tried to take the food while I was still standing there, I stomped my foot at her and gave her an intense look. She tried again and I turned my back on her, stomped again and raised my leg back a little. She took a few steps back and waited politely until I walked away. Now, everytime I feed her she stands and waits until I walk away. I thought surely it cannot be that easy! Usually it takes horses a few repititions to learn this but not Scout. She is so incredibly smart.

I am also working on teaching her to give her feet for trimming. She is not thrilled by this but also has not shown a great level of resistance either. I will work on this each day this week and hopefully will be able to trim her front feet soon enough.

I also put the halter on her the other day and asked for a few simple maneuvers. I asked for hindquarter yields, shoulder yields, backup and to walk and run with me coming to a dead stop when I did. She did all this very easily and without hesitation. Never have I come across an easier horse to work with.

Here is a view of Scout's paddock. Her paddock is the one on the left with the large shelter. There are 10 horses in the paddock opposite and they spend alot of time at the fence watching Scout. Interestingly, three of the horses in that paddock are imported Gypsy drum horses. They were imported from the USA and they are the ones that spend most of the time staring at Scout and she at them. I was talking to their owner the other day and said I reckon they feel at home recognising each others accent ;)